The Bones of the Hospital (Le ossa dell’ ospedale)

We’re making a novena for grandpa.

I stumble on words like leukemia,

Don’t understand bone marrow transplanting.

Before my father goes to donate his,

We’re having bone soup.  "It’s nutritious food,"

Explains my mother.  But the real reason’s

Because we’re broke, my classmates like to taunt.

I wonder if physicians will respect

Grandpa if neighbors hate poor foreigners

Like us, whose kitchen windows don’t emit

Aromas of expensive T-bone steaks.

Dad’s rich in health, the closest match.  He sighs,

"Vado in ospedale!"  Miracles

Depend on faith but don’t discriminate.

One time in Stromboli, a ledge gave way —

Eruptions tearing up the crust beneath

His feet —  and nonno reached out for tree bones,

Dangled all night till rescuers arrived.

Volcanoes are impartial.  Which divine

Did grandpa put in charge of destiny?

Disease erupts like blowholes. Lava’s kind

To crops —  then turns destructive hot-spot god.

Perhaps le ossa dell’ ospedale

Are saints that guard red wards of surgery,

Restore the safe ground under human feet.

Strong bones of hospitals exist in dreams,

Protecting patients, blocking the cold room

Where promise goes, supplying nourishment.

Dad visits gramps. Hope's fire is revived.

Marrow's like monks who chant for his to rise.

Native New Yorker and award-winner, LindaAnn LoSchiavo is a member of British Fantasy Society, HWA, SFPA, and The Dramatists Guild. Titles published in 2024:  “Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems” [Wild Ink], “Apprenticed to the Night” [UniVerse Press], and “Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide” [Ukiyoto].

Forthcoming: “Cancer Courts My Mother” [Prolific Pulse Press, 2025].

Book  Accolades earned: Elgin Award for “A Route Obscure and Lonely” and Chrysalis BREW Project’s Award for Excellence for “Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems.”

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